Search - Elly Ameling :: Artistry of Elly Ameling (Coll)

A great treasure of 20th-century singing and music-making

R. W. Holliston | Victoria, B.C. Canada | 06/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For far too long, Elly Ameling (who, according to the enclosed booklet, recently celebrated her 70th birthday) has been under-represented on CD. In fact she still is (Columbia Masterworks, please note!)
There are those who maintain that her voice lacked weight and her singing drama. True, her reach occasionally exceeded her grasp (i.e., Brahms's Von ewiger Liebe). On the other hand, she never actually tackled Tosca or Isolde, and her rendition of Schumann's Frauenliebe und leben is deeply moving without her ever resorting to the sort of trickery or italicizing favored by Dr. Schwarzkopf - and, if the folks at Philips ever get around to re-releasing it, her reading of Ravel's Sheherazade is masterful.
There is simply no way to over-praise this collection. In retrospect, Mme. Ameling seems like one of the greatest and most treasurable artists of the twentieth century: a light and flexible voice of great natural beauty, allied to a natural musicality and sensitivity (Irwin Gage once described her as having a "fantastic literary imagination"), very much in the sorely-missed tradition of Elisabeth Schumann rather than the current one of Barbara Bonney. There is a generous selection of Baroque material, a handful of Mozart arias and Haydn songs (not enough, though), Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf (sung with refreshing simplicity), just enough French repertoire to leave you in awe but nowhere near satisfied, and quite a bit of cabaret material.
Mme. Ameling's command of languages is remarkable. True, she retains a slightly Dutch inflection, but it is not uncharming and never detracts from her impeccable diction and deeply felt understanding.
A word about her cabaret excursions: whatever you may think of "crossover" albums, she was one of a few to really take the plunge and engage the services of a genuine jazz pianist and bassist rather than hiding behind the over-produced arrangements of, say John Williams. Call it Elly Sings Ella - I'd certainly pay good money to hear her at the Carlyle or the Algonquin....(and, while I'm on that subject, the highest possible praise for each and every one of Mme. Ameling's accompanists).
A musician's singer, a singer's musician, an artist's artist. Thank you, Philips, for this invaluable collection!
And thank you, Elly Ameling, for the gift of your incomparable artistry."

Treasures From a Treasure

G P Padillo | Portland, ME United States | 09/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Treasures from a Treasure.



Ameling, one of the world's most beloved recitalists is captured here in a 5 CD collection offering some of her most beautiful recordings of song. While we are used to her perfection in songs of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Faure and Hahn, an added joy is her "pop" side, tackling - without a whiff of pretension, Porter, Kern, Gershwin, Ellington, et al.



What an absolute joy it is listening to this amazing artist sing these songs with an almost uncanny natural ease. There is no resorting to a "pop" voice and yet most of these pop standards songs sound as though they could have been written for her. Clean attacks, sometimes a bit of the pop technique of hanging on to a consonant longer than a classical artist normally would shows an appreciation and understanding of the style. Still, there is never once a compromise of her vocal beauty.



I like the way the songs have been arranged for her voice in that she sort of sings them clean, unaffected in the first half and then lets loose and kinda "swings" with it adding embellishments but never really changing her voice (Price, von Stade and other favorite singers of mine seem to have always added a breathy quality to much of their crossover material.)



Ameling doesn't resort to trying to "let her hair down" or get down and dirty, but rather the honest with which she approaches every one of these songs shows how much she enjoys singing them and her style is as refreshing as stumbling onto a cool spring on a sweltering summer's afternoon. A wonderful surprise.

"

More than fully earned praise for an exceptional singer.

diny tecker-kropman | Amsterdam Netherlands | 07/15/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As I had the privilige of hearing this outstanding Lied-singer during her long career in Holland and being the proud possessor of almost all her recordings, I cannot but fully agree with the professional and joyful review of Mr. Robert Holliston from Victoria, B.C. Canada.
Yes, it is unbelievable that of about the 150 recordings Mrs. Ameling made during her long career (for the greater part of course on the 'oldfashioned' LP's, as well as the innumerable Dutch live-recorded radio-concerts), so few CD's have been released.
Speaking of tradition: it was the page-turner of the Wigmore Hall in London who told Mrs. Ameling after her first recital in this hall, that she reminded him of Elisabeth Schumann. (And he certainly didn't mean her looks only!)
For those who are eager to hear her singing Ravel's Shéhérazade (just one example of stirring imagination combined with her Art of Singing) I can tell you that Philips released a 2-box CD of this work in 1999, combined with Debussy's La Damoiselle élue and a compilation of French mélodies, i.e. Debussy, Fauré, Duparc, Satie. One of the gems is Caplet's Le Corbeau et le Renard which even make children, who know the fables of La Fontaine, revel in the singing of the quarrelsome birds....
Her brilliant accompanyist is Rudolf Jansen. Let us cherish great artists in their art!"